The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey, hereafter referred to as the "OAS CAHPS" survey, is designed to measure the experiences of care for patients who visited Medicare-certified hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) or ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) for a surgery or procedure. The survey is designed to:

• Produce comparable data on the patient’s perspective that allows objective and meaningful comparisons between HOPDs and free-standing ASCs on domains that are important to consumers.
• Allow consumers to make more informed choices when choosing an HOPD or ASC.
• Facilitate quality improvement initiatives for HOPDs and ASCs.
  

Specifically, the survey measures patients’ experiences on topics that are important when choosing an outpatient/ambulatory surgery provider for their surgery or procedure. The following types of patient experiences are included: 

• communication and care provided by health care providers and office staff;
• preparation for the surgery or procedure, and
• preparations for discharge and recovery.

The OAS CAHPS development has been underway since 2012. Prior to OAS CAHPS, there was no standardized survey instrument to assess patient experience with outpatient surgical care received at HOPDs and ASCs. The survey development process followed the principles and guidelines outlined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and its Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Consortium in developing a patient experience of care survey. This included reviewing surveys submitted as a result of a public call for measures; reviewing existing literature; conducting focus groups with patients who had a recent outpatient surgery or procedure; conducting cognitive interviews with patients to test their understanding and ability to answer the questions; and obtaining stakeholder input on the draft survey and other issues that may impact survey implementation. The goal of the survey development process was to identify and include dimensions of care that patients and other consumers want or need to inform their choice of an HOPD or ASC.

A field test was conducted in the summer of 2014 to test the reliability of the survey items and implementation procedures. Based on the field test findings, the survey instrument was revised and finalized. The survey received accreditation as a CAHPS® survey in February 2015.

On January 16th, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the 60 Day Notice in the Federal Register. On May 1st, CMS published the 30 Day Notice in the Federal Register. Additional information about these Notices and the call for comments can be found in the link provided here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-01-30/html/2015-01777.htm.